The 85 million US dollars is the flyaway cost of the fighter. Indians are also paying for weapons, training, two maintenance depots and 10 years of maintenance and that is why over 9 billion US dollars for only 36 planes. India only agreed to buy Rafale when France offered to sell the fighter at the price the French air-force was buying it for.
Whatever the actual cost is, Gripen E would be around 2/3rds of what a Rafale or Eurofighter would cost. It also is much cheaper to operate and so would be ideal for a country like BD that does not spend that much money on defence.
We know that the big hurdle would be USA because of the engine, but in your opinion would Sweden object to selling Gripen to BD?
Depends on who You ask, two of the three parties forming the government coalition,
(The communist party is in the coalition, but not actually part of the government) objects to ALL Gripen exports. They are representing around 10% of the voters, so their influence is marginal.
The Social Democrats are split on selling weapons to abroad.
The party top is industrialists, and are aware that exports are needed to finance the defense of Sweden.
As I mentioned in a thread some months ago, one of the key criteria is that
do not want to see Swedish materiel used for something that would give them bad press.
BD is a border case, due to the unrest where bloggers get killed,
and risk of War with Myanmar.
Some people think that Sweden does not sell to Muslim countries,
but Indonesia has gotten approval.
BD will get approval, if it is in the interest of Sweden that BD buys.
SAAB would love to sell to BD, I am sure, but they might try to sell the Gripen C as well.
